Richard and I were expecting to have to work this weekend. Friday is Teacher's Day, so it was supposed to be a day off, but Hua Hin decided to have English Camp for all of it's 4-6th graders this weekend, and we were expected to work there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was going to be a long two weeks with no break. But then...surprise! Somehow the budget didn't come through for English Camp, so we suddenly had a three day weekend. Hmm, what do do on a three day weekend when you are a mere bus ride away from southern Thailand? Visit an island, of course! After we finish teaching, Richard and I want to travel around northern Thailand, so this was looking to be our one island trip. And we wanted to do it right. So many of the Thai islands have become completely built up and turned into gross, expensive tourist traps, but we learned about the Surin Islands in the Andaman Sea, which are protected by national park status. One of our friends from our program went there and raved about his trip. Everything about the Surin Islands looked perfect. So, away we went.After work on Thursday, we took an overnight bus ride to Kuraburi, the town where you can catch a boat to the islands. It was uncomfortable and long, and we arrived in Kuraburi at around four in the morning. The "bus station" there was a couple benches outside a little office that was closed. We were a little bit worried for a moment, but within three seconds, a songtow pulled up and a woman got out. "You want to go to Surin Islands?" She opened up the Sabina Tours office, which was right next to the bus station, gave us coffee and a brochure, and then booked us a spot on a boat to the island. We still had to wait around for a while, but then they gave us a ride to the pier, where we were able to get breakfast and check out the park information center while we waited. At nine, we got on the "big boat" that took about two and a half hours to bring us to the islands. When we first got on, everyone was given life jackets, but no one bothered to put them on. About halfway into the trip, though, the waves got pretty rough, and we often felt dangerously close to tipping over! No one was too cool to wear life jackets anymore.
We finally reached the islands and pulled into one of the little bays. We got into little long tail boats, and were brought to the pier at the park headquarters. I could not handle how beautiful it was there. Clear water. Blue skies. Mountains. Beaches. Little fishing boats bobbing in the water. The pictures I took do not come close to capturing it. Richard and I rented a tent, some bedding, and some snorkeling equipment and got down to the serious business of Having Fun. There was a nature trail leading from our beach to another beach with a reputation for good snorkeling, so we set off. The trail was only 2 km, but it was pretty rough. We crossed at least a dozen rickety bridges and did a bit of climbing. The whole way, we could see the water through the trees on our left hand side, and there were several lookout points, and even a few empty beaches. It was a great little hike.
We got to the other beach, which had a similar campground to the beach where we were staying, put on the snorkel gear, and went exploring. There are coral reefs all over the island, and there was quite a bit of coral at this beach. The water was pretty shallow, so we could see the coral really well. It wasn't bright and colorful like coral you might see on the travel channel, but it was filled with all kinds of fish. I'd never been snorkeling before, so I thought it was pretty awesome!
After that, we lied on the beach for a while, hiked back to our campgrounds, and got ready for the night. The camp headquarters ran a little restaurant, so we got a great dinner, and then crashed super early. I think we fell asleep by 8:30. Taking night-time buses can do that to you. We slept well enough, got up, sat on a rock by the water and ate crackers for breakfast. We played some frisbee on the beach and then decided to go on a tour to see the Moken tribe, an indigenous group that has settled on one of the islands. We took a long tail boat to the island. When we got close to shore, we could see a bunch of the Moken children playing in the water with little homemade rafts, many of them naked. It looked like a pretty fun place to be a kid.
We got out of the boat and waded to the shore. The village was really cool. All of the houses were on stilts, right on the beach. The people were friendly. They're definitely used to tourists, and a bunch of people were selling bamboo handicrafts and little boat sculptures. It felt a little weird to just be wandering around their village. The indigenous tribe tourist industry is pretty established in Thailand, especially in the north, where it's really easy to go on a trek to visit various hill tribes. I don't know how comfortable I am with the whole system. On the one hand, it's pretty exploitative. A lot of people profit off of this tourism, and you can't really visit an indigenous tribe without severely altering their way of life. On the other hand, the tribes generally get some benefit from it too, receiving a cut from the tourist companies and getting a chance to sell their handicrafts. It's also hard to feel comfortable with the situation of the Moken tribe. Their traditional way of life is to live as "sea gypsies," living off their boats and traveling from island to island, only settling on land during the monsoon season. However, it seems that the Thai government has forced them to live in permanent settlements. At the same time, perhaps it's pretty nice of the Thai government to let them live on national park land at all, which is technically supposed to be free from settlement. The moral implications of all this are a little too complicated for me to sort out. I enjoyed visiting the Moken tribe, and I hope taking part in this tourism isn't something I need to feel too guilty about. Here is a picture of the village, and of some girls that sold me a bracelet.
Another interesting tidbit about the Moken: their village was destroyed in the tsunami, but no one was killed because they knew to get to high ground before the wave hit. Pretty cool. After visiting the Moken village, Richard and I only had a little bit of time left. We hit the water one more time, did some last minute snorkeling at our beach, packed up, ate some lunch, and caught a speed boat back. The trip home was long and tiring, but we made it by two in the morning, and we have all day today (Sunday) to get ready for the week. It was a wonderful trip.
We got out of the boat and waded to the shore. The village was really cool. All of the houses were on stilts, right on the beach. The people were friendly. They're definitely used to tourists, and a bunch of people were selling bamboo handicrafts and little boat sculptures. It felt a little weird to just be wandering around their village. The indigenous tribe tourist industry is pretty established in Thailand, especially in the north, where it's really easy to go on a trek to visit various hill tribes. I don't know how comfortable I am with the whole system. On the one hand, it's pretty exploitative. A lot of people profit off of this tourism, and you can't really visit an indigenous tribe without severely altering their way of life. On the other hand, the tribes generally get some benefit from it too, receiving a cut from the tourist companies and getting a chance to sell their handicrafts. It's also hard to feel comfortable with the situation of the Moken tribe. Their traditional way of life is to live as "sea gypsies," living off their boats and traveling from island to island, only settling on land during the monsoon season. However, it seems that the Thai government has forced them to live in permanent settlements. At the same time, perhaps it's pretty nice of the Thai government to let them live on national park land at all, which is technically supposed to be free from settlement. The moral implications of all this are a little too complicated for me to sort out. I enjoyed visiting the Moken tribe, and I hope taking part in this tourism isn't something I need to feel too guilty about. Here is a picture of the village, and of some girls that sold me a bracelet.
Another interesting tidbit about the Moken: their village was destroyed in the tsunami, but no one was killed because they knew to get to high ground before the wave hit. Pretty cool. After visiting the Moken village, Richard and I only had a little bit of time left. We hit the water one more time, did some last minute snorkeling at our beach, packed up, ate some lunch, and caught a speed boat back. The trip home was long and tiring, but we made it by two in the morning, and we have all day today (Sunday) to get ready for the week. It was a wonderful trip.
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